Martini Hour 053, In Which Photoshop Turns Twenty and Martini Hour Turns One

Submitted by colleen on 18 February 2010 - 2:24am.

You know, it seems like only yesterday, our favorite little pixel-wrangler was just learning how to grasp things with its tiny little hand tool. And today a grown-up Photoshop turns 20---as sophisticated, complex, and worldly a piece of software as there ever was. It's also the one-year anniversary of the day Deke and I lost our heads and decided to record the goings-on in the dekeLounge, so we could share with our martini-quaffing, computer graphics-loving friends everywhere. We celebrate these two happy occasions on the Martini Hour this week, by sipping champagne out of martini glasses and chatting with our good friends Adobe Product Managers John Nack and Bryan O'Neil Hughes.

And forward-thinkers that we four are, rather than wax sentimentally about the last 20 years of Photoshop, we decided to look ahead to what might inform the next 20 years:

For the immediate future, we found out Bryan is leaking information about the next version on the Photoshop Facebook fan page. One of the most unexpectedly exciting features Bryan's noted lately are the "Just Do It" items---those things that have probably been bugging the bejezuss out of you for the greater part of the last two decades---a set of fixes that finally addresses those things you knew Adobe would fix if they just had time and a solid sense of what everyday joes and janes found important. They're just doing it. And we'll be just grateful, probably on a daily basis.

And of course, no discussion of Photoshop's future could avoid the ubiquitous nature and insidious encroachment of social media upon every single aspect of our lives! OK, so you may not want to read your twitter stream in a flash panel inside Photoshop (stop procrastinating!), but what if you could quickly tweet for help when you get stuck? Social media isn't just for amusing yourself when you're lonely and don't feel like working (or maybe that's just me).

We also discuss how the Apple iPad might change the Photoshop game. Although it's unlikely at this point you would use that device for heavy-duty pixel-lifting, could it end up being the perfect transportable electronic portfolio? Or the ultimate five-fingered input device? Only the future knows, but we can sip bubbly and think about the possibilities!

Come celebrate and contemplate with us! If you have any doubt about how great this episode is, just check out the number of exclamation points in this post! Here's the regular-quality (128kbps) audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. For you audiophiles out there, here's the link to the high-quality (320kbps) version. Be sure to download, don't stream. And don't forget the usual suggestion to subscribe via iTunes.

A toast to Photoshop and 20 years of pain and pleasure! A toast to our guests and the spontaneous creation of a drinking game based on every time Bryan says "Scott Kelby" or John says "Configurator!" A toast to Martini Hour, which allows us to toast on a weekly basis! And I must sneak in a toast to my wonderful son, which, in my world, happens to be the most important thing born on this day where important things were born. (Happy 14th Birthday, Wheels!). Sláinte!

The background music and talking is terrible. Absolutely terrible. Did you actually listen to what you made? Did you actually think that it's a good idea? I haven't listened to any of your other podcasts, but you completely undermined the relatively decent content with crap that did nothing but give me a headache.

I'm somewhat hearing-impaired, and therefore it is a strain to listen to your Lounge podcasts -- due to the ever-present background music, which fights for auditory attention with your voices. Please consider turning this completely OFF after the intro section. It adds no real content to the podcasts -- and it greatly hinders the ability of hearing-impaired folks to hear your otherwise excellent podcasts. Thanks.

Ok so how do we get our wonderful pixel wrangler to make little 16x16 animated favicons?

I see there are multiple formats, some 32x32 some 64x64 some more on the Mac, some even animated! Some files contain a bunch of formats packaged as one file.

But it seems out of the box Photoshop does not know what to do with .ico files - much less pack multi formats or animate them...

What's the secret handshake?!

< img src ="http://planetearthdiversified.com/Favicons/MartiniHour/favicon.ico "/> --- here is One for You and Colleen and the Martini Hour I made it no copyright totally free for you to use Deke [but not in Photoshop]

Photoshop (CS3 or CS4) can't even open it - tried an .ico plugin but alas it thinks this animated file is 28384 icons in one and crashes -

I really want to use Photoshop to make them better and use my wonderful tool instead of painstakingly plugging pixels one by one into a 16x16 matrix.

Sorry for the link but I could not post image - guess you turned off that html in comments?

..also maybe you could tell us how to pronounce "favicon" - (thinking there might be a funny story like GIF and JIFF or palette and panel)

The field is also often referred to as Visual Communication or Communication Design. signs Various methods are used to create and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages
http://www.signstoyou.com/